Here's one comforting thing I've learned in my month spent prepping to be a Victoria's Secret Angel: The Angels did NOT wake up like this. I mean, yes, every single one of these models is genetically blessed and ***flawless, but before the big show, they get a lot of help. Especially when it comes to beauty. I know this because I spent a combined total of five hours undergoing the same specialized beauty treatments the Angels receive pre-show.

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The procedure: The oxygen facial

The guru: Mzia Shiman

Her facials are so good she's been nicknamed JFK-Mzia "because the girls come straight here after they come off the airplane" she says. True to her nickname (only replace New York City's JFK airport for London's Heathrow airport, for this year's show set in the UK), I witnessed three Angels head straight from the flight to London to see Shiman, who had been flown over for the show. She's been working with Victoria's Secret for 15 years, attending to the visages of O.G. Angels like Heidi Klum.

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What it entails:

"You have beautiful skin but I can help you," Shiman tells me when I get to her unassuming midtown spa. I like her right away—not only because she compliments me but also because I can sense that she really knows what she is talking about. She starts up her machine, pumping oxygen into my face while working various serums in. "Oxygen is very strong," she says. "So I want this serum to go into your skin but the oxygen will help your pores open up so that I can get in there directly." The machine tickles a little but overall the sensation is pleasant. She even uses the machine to plump up my lips, which she says all the girls love. After my facial, I feel like a newborn. I don't want go outside and have the city pollutants contaminate my face. It was probably the most pure my skin has ever been in a very long time.

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Where: The Mzia Shiman Spa. 5 E 59th St, New York, NY 10022

Time spent: Two hours

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The procedure: The muscle-defining spray tan

The guru: Kristyn Pradas

Pradas is the woman responsible for giving every Angel her customized glow. Like Shiman, Pradas travels to London for the show, along with her kit of tanning dyes packed into tiny 3 oz bottles along with her pop-up tanning tent. (Pradas usually makes house calls, hence, the tent.) This is her second show with Victoria's Secret.

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What it entails:

When the Victoria's Secret team told me that I was getting a spray tan as part of my Angel transformation, I was confused. "Does everyone get this? Like everyone?" I asked. I have never had a spray tan before and why would I? I'm black. My skin is brown from January to December whether I am beachside or not. I don't know if this is something that I should be doing.

This spray tan is more about getting that angel "glow" and adding in muscle definition, Pradas explained. She also custom-mixes shades for all of the angels.

So I get into my Victoria's Secret bikini and step onto two things that I can only describe as mousetraps for your feet, lotion up my hands, and get in the spray tent. The whole treatment takes about an hour and a half. "You're going to give me abs, right?" I ask her. She smiles and says "Make a muscle." HAHA. I try. We don't get far with the abs. When it's all over I go over to mirror and stare at my reflection: I look like I did when I was in Bermuda in July. The next step is my least favorite, where Pradas douses me with baby powder to prevent me from sticking. "The tan is sugar based. It is made from beets, so it gets a little sticky." I can't shower for another 6-8 hours so I walk with my legs and arms apart from my body, no doubt giving the many strangers on the street an interesting show. Not really the walk of an Angel, but I'm getting there.

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Where: Your house, her tent

Time spent: An hour and a half

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The procedure: Wink-ready lashes

The guru: Courtney Akai and the team at the Courtney Akai salon

What it entails:

Long feathered lashes are key to the Victoria's Secret angel beauty look. When an angel winks seductively at the camera, her eyes have to be framed by long, doe-like lashes. Their secret? Courtney Akai and her team of lash experts.

I have nothing against eyelash extensions or even fake eyelashes. I know they look great. I've just never had the patience. And you must have patience to sit for eyelash extensions. For an hour and a half, I lie on a table with my eyes closed with gel pads covering my lower lashes so that Tamara, my lash technician, can painstakingly apply extensions to my top lashes. During most beauty treatments, I am glued to my phone, e-mailing, checking Instagram, and harassing Sally Holmes over text, but for this process you can't do anything. It's excruciating.

When it's all over, I'm thrilled at my reflection. I am crying tears but not tears of joy—I think they're tears of instinct from finally being able to blink again. I practice my Angel wink in the mirror, which, by the way I am terrible at, but I am incredibly satisfied. No eye makeup and still I'm looking fresh and awake. Aha, Angels! I'm onto your secrets.

"America smells like Victoria's Secret," Knitowski tells me when I am sitting in his very pungent office. Knitowski travels between New York, Paris, and the Amazon, collecting samples of notes to use in Victoria's Secret perfumes. "I am trying to create a memory," he says.

What it entails:

How you smell is an important part of being an Angel. Can you imagine if you looked like them but smelled like a compost bin? Of course you can't. Each Angel has her own unique scent. "A fragrance should flow through her" and by "her" Mark means both the Angel and the customer. "It should be like she has wings on," he adds.

Backstage and on the runway, the girls will be wearing the official 2014 Fashion Show scent, Dream Angels: Heavenly, and even though the public can't see that, what they will see are the images of Lily and Karlie next to this bottle and make the connection themselves. What is the lesson here? Smelling like an Angel and being and Angel are one in the same.

Where: Sold at any at all Victoria's Secret stores

Time spent: Countless hours in research and development, seconds to spritz on your wrist and fly away...